If you've bought or are going to buy a hosting,
which type of hosting:

Reliable
or
low cost hosting ?



Thanks!

So in your opinion the terms are mutually exclusive....

Not completely Of course but in most cases - yes.

Hmm ...
There isn't opinions?
Don't like the questions or anything else?

Well since you asked for an opinion, here's mine:

There will always be people (especially first time hosters) that want the cheapest price, thinking that each host is the same, offering the same service. Since it's the same, why pay more? Right? Well, they soon find out that there is the overlooked issue of reliability which becomes more and more important as your website becomes more and more popular. Anybody with experience with webhosting is sure to give you the response of reliability. Unless you are hosting a personal or family website, reliability is key, especially if it is a business you are running which could be, or could become your main source of income. Just like a physical store, it must be opened for business as much as possible so that when somebody wants to buy something, they can, instead of having them pass you by. It's always great to find a low cost for something, but in the hosting industry, it becomes a gamble. There are so many hosts who couldn't care any less about their customers that are thriving because of their dirt cheap prices and so many quality hosts with potential who do not oversell their resources or offer unlimited plans that close up shop in less than a year. This industry has an attractive look on the outside, but when you get in the middle of it, it can get a little dirty. But I think that any host can count on the experienced customers who look for reliability to stay with them as long as the quality is there.

Excelhosting -

That's where websites come in.

I agree with your comment; "There will always be people (especially first time hosters) that want the cheapest price, thinking that each host is the same, offering the same service. Since it's the same, why pay more?"

However, in direct response to that, that's something my company has had to address, on numerous occasions, as we're certainly not the cheapest around, some would even call us expensive.

A website is the only thing that's standing between the customer going to "XYZHost.com", and signing up with your company. When I see comments around various places like "it's just a website" - it makes me laugh - a website is the ultimate sales tool, and is there for those exact people you describe in your quote above.

The 'techies' will be able to tell if you're a good company, and most will need little, or no guidance. However, the 'new netizens' will not be able to tell if you're a cut above - unless you literally show them why they should part with an extra $xx.xx per month. Datacenter factsheets, interactive forums, even faq-related movies can all do this, and show the 'inexperienced' just how good your company is.

Simon

I absolutely agree 100%...websites have become the most important sales tool as they are always (or at least should always be) accessable, whether you are home, at work, or sitting in traffic using your cell phone (while still paying attention I hope ) It just comes down to what it will cost you or the importance of your site. But, all new "netizens" will learn after that one bad experience that cheapest is not always best. Thats when companies who are not the cheapest around, but have become known for their reliability and support will prevail and get the customers who are not looking for a steal.

I also realize that everybody must be money concious and people cannot simply afford to pay anything, but there needs to be limits. Asking to pay $1 for 20GB of space and 150 GB of bandwidth will be regreted. I also think that people who are new to the industry don't really understand how much a certain plan is supposed to cost and they try to find the lowest price they possibly can for what they need, not even thinking to cinsider reliability as an issue. It is obviously understandable to look for the lowest price, as this is exactly what you would do when you shop for a new car, but all Fords are from the same company. All hosting plans are not. Basically, I think that one of the issues many first time hosters experience is due to a lack or education and/or research of the industry and they end up jumping into a plan that may have even forced them to pay anually because it was so inexpensive and because they did that, they are stuck with the horrible service of that host for a whole year when they could have switched hosts in a month.

Also as a side note, many spammers and hackers look for the cheapest hosting to launch their attacks, so even though very inexpensive companies may have a lot of clients, they could be putting themselves and their customers in a risky situation, which could spell out the end of their business.

Good comments!

Thanks Xcel_Hosting, Simon.

I have been expected exactly such comments.
The thread has to help people when they are going
to buy hosting for the first time to understand
what is the risk if their decision is based only
at low price.

I hope there will be and other comments!

No problem...It's a good topic and I feel that many people often fail to address it when they are looking for hosting.

Well. I think web hosts can meet both requirements... to be reliable and to sell at low cost. Off course you can not provide cheap service and to be very reliable.

Regards
Webmaster

Reliability and quality service come first in my opinion.

I disagree with question. Every customer expects this days a reliable hosting. Low cost has different meaning to different people if you are not selling locally.

That may be true, but with the way certain hosts operate with such cheap selling costs, it can be difficult for them to provide the same level of quality and reliability as hosts who charge more adequate prices.